A bildungsroman is a novel which follows the moral,
intellectual and psychological growth of a main character.
— The story ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is
considered a bildungsroman.
— During the three years of the story
Scout grows up and matures.
— Scout learns to treat people as
individuals and not according to stereotypes.
— Scout learns about justice and truth from the
Tom Robinson Case
— Scout learns to face her fears.
Scout grows throughout the book in many ways. The novel
covers three years of her life and during the book Scout evolves a lot, in
terms of intellect and cunning, her sense of values becoming much stronger, and
her awareness and resentment of the harsh society in which she lives grows.
Perhaps the character of Scout is unrealistic; the manner in
which she speaks and acts appears mature beyond her age throughout the book. The
impression is given, however, that Scout writes the book from adulthood,
recalling her childhood. This explains the over-maturity of her character.
At the beginning of the book, Boo Radley fascinates the
children. In fact, the children are just as excited by Boo as they are by books
and movies. Boo scares the children a lot, they believe ludicrous stories that
they have been told elsewhere, and will not pass his house at any slower gait
than a run. They enjoy teasing him with various games.
As the book goes on, the children gradually lose their
interest in Boo. They realise that teasing him is cruel, and they lose their
fear of his domain. As the story progresses the children discover, and come to
accept, the true nature of Boo Radley. They realise that it is he who leaves
them presents in the tree, and he who sewed up Jem’s breaches.
At the end of the book, the nature of the relationship
between Boo and the children is very suddenly changed. Boo saves the children
from Bob Ewell and very quickly changes from a ghost, to a kind, lonely man
whose company is appreciated.
Scout’s ‘moral compass’ develops considerably when she is
taught a lesson about real courage. After Jem vandalises the camellias of Mrs
Dubose, Scout and Jem are forced to go and read to the old woman to make amends.
The children originally have a very bad opinion of Mrs Dubose, but Atticus
explains to them about her morphine addiction, and her steely resolve in the
face of great adversity. The children take a lot from these experiences,
learning about moral courage.
Towards the end of the book, Scout has grown greatly, and
this is shown by how she reacts to the comments of Miss Gates, who claims that
Tom Robinson’s conviction was good and put ‘the Negroes in their place’. This
severely upsets a mature Scout showing the degree of her moral development throughout
the book.
‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is a tale of development and
learning. It follows Scout and Jem’s journey from ignorance to enlightenment.
The novel is undoubtedly one of the greatest and most well known bildungsromans
of all time.
